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- cred: P.P.
920
- ↓ 0.24
- ꩜ 0.51
- ↑ 9.04
{W}{C} → Double Bubble : 10×
Flip 2 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads. If either of the coins is heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.
illus. Mitsuhiro Arita
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Quarter-Turn
This. Plus Victini. Plus Vileplume. Yes please.
Mantidactyle
We need more of missprints like this one
Nosredna
If you go by the misprint, this is the ONLY Basic Pokémon in the EX era with free retreat. It’s interesting how the E-series and EX series didn’t print free retreating basics (apart from ones that can only retreat freely via Poke-BODY).
Otaku
Blame Scyther (Jungle).
For a slightly more detailed explanation, you need to understand the varying metagame for the first three and a half years of the Pokémon TCG, having a “pivot Pokémon” was kind of broken. Originally, I think Special Conditions and a variety of other attack effects were intended to be far stronger, and cards like Full Heal were not supposed to be complete and total jokes. However, just spamming Switch and Scoop Up in the Base Set-only days meant such effects were far weaker than (likely) intended. Scyther was our first Basic with a printed free Retreat Cost, and it made Switch and Scoop Up that much better.
Oh, and under the original rules, you could retreat as many times per turn as you could afford. Another big game changer!
Nosredna
I figured having a “pivot” pokemon was the issue. BTW I’ve been looking through old Pojo card reviews to get a better understanding of the ex format (I started playing casually at that time) and your reviews have been super helpful there!
Mantidactyle
CG Kyogre ex has 0 retreat as well.
Nosredna
If it had less than 2 energy attached, yes. There were a few other cards with similar effects (that could all be shut off by things like cessation crystal) but I was mostly just looking for things that had a hard zero retreat.
Ambassador
To keep the ball rolling on the “Sandstorm is weird” conversation, I think it’s possible that this Marill’s misprint makes it suspect as one of the odd cards out in Sandstorm. I’m proposing that Marill was originally designed by WOTC as a card with free retreat, and when submitted to PCL, something roughly along either of these lines occurred;
1. PCL *conditionally* approved the card and sent WOTC a note saying “fine, but increase the Retreat to 1.” In the transfer from WOTC to PUSA/NOA, that caveat got lost in the shuffle, and all PUSA/NOA saw was “approved”. They printed the card as is, but shortly thereafter noticed that it was out of line with the Japanese print, and had to correct it to match the JP print.
2. PCL approved the card for Jamboree without any notes, considering it would be a US-only set and had no intention of using any of them in the JP edition. For whatever reason, they decided to use Jamboree cards after all and when adopting this card in particular, tweaked it to adhere to the “no free Retreats for (single prize) basics” principle as documented above. They didn’t circle back with PUSA/NOA to communicate that tweak, and so Marill got printed as originally approved.
It can be noted that this was one of the last instances of “play as printed” – possibly *the last?* (Feel free to correct me here.) – and that might work as a point in favor of either narrative. For Scenario 1, since we know ex-WOTC got hired into PUSA/NOA, their belligerence might’ve carried on for just a bit longer, so that here that “play as printed” would represent the same rebellious spirit as before – except unlike last time, where they were trying to force their *tweaks* into the game, here they were trying to preserve their *original intent*. For Scenario 2, they’d be annoyed at PCL dropping the ball in communication with them, and so slow to agree to this sudden design change of a card *they* made.
This situation, if indeed the case, has a parallel in Steven’s Advice. For lack of official comment from anyone within PUSA/NOA, I will run with the operating idea that that card was *definitely* a Jamboree card. From there, I feel safe in assuming that the EXHL text of that card isn’t a translation of its ADV4 counterpart, but the reverse – in a sense, it was the ADV4 card that was the mistranslation. Nonetheless, since the Japanese edition of the game’s the primary edition of the game, rulings at the relevant Worlds (and the EXPK print of Steven’s Advice later on), were forced to adhere to the JP text of the card. (And I suspect the reason we didn’t see any “print as played” for that card is because PCL was quickly realizing even after nominally bringing everything under the same roof, PUSA/NOA would still need to be brought to heel, with Marill maybe being one of the last instances of “rebellion”, and Steven’s maybe being one of the first instances of putting one down.)