Mysterious Fossil · Legend Maker (LM) #79

4 comments

1. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   This print of Mysterious Fossil gave it an extra 40HP, but it also stole a very important property from it – whereas past prints said to treat it as a Pokémon instead of a Trainer while in play, this print said to treat it as a Pokémon card AND Trainer card while in play. Notably, this meant Mysterious Fossil (and Claw and Root Fossil, which also underwent the amendment to language from SS->LM) were now susceptible to the effect of Ancient Technical Machine [Ice].

   Legend Maker also debuted a change to the rules regarding these Fossil cards. To lift directly from Jason Klaczynski’s site;
   It may seem odd, but beginning at the EX Legend Maker set (and continuing into the Diamond & Pearl/Platinum era), Fossils began to be treated as Basic Pokémon during set-up. This means that if you have a Fossil Trainer in your opening hand, you may place it down as one of your starting Pokémon. Because Fossils are treated as Basic Pokémon during set-up, a hand with Fossils but no other Basic Pokémon will not be a mulligan; you must begin the game with a Fossil as your starting Pokémon. [ – https://jklaczpokemon.com/ex-decks/ ]

   The change in text of the Fossils, combined with this new rule regarding them, seems to be a deliberate one-two punch against a milling deck I described in a comment on Team Magma’s Torkoal. In terms of some of the very specific antis across the years (No Removal Gym as an anti-Energy Removal, Broken Ground Gym as an anti-Baby, CRE Spiritomb as an anti-Night March) this is so thorough, uncompromising, and doesn’t have any sense of humor about it the way the examples I’ve listed off do. They wanted to stop the deck and they wanted it stopped yesterday. What’s weird is that this milling deck seems to have had much more traction in Japan than it did in North America, and ATM[Ice] completely shut it down there, but when you compare the Fossil text between languages, the English Fossils would’ve been immune to ATM[Ice] and the combo could’ve continued on until Legend Maker completely thrashed it – had anyone played it. And they should’ve! But I can’t find any mention of it on the English internet. (In fact, I remember people shrugging at the rule change regarding Fossils. We had no idea!)

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   • 

     JP Ambassador

     (2 years ago)

     An old Compendium ruling dated 6/17/2004 says that ATM [Ice] doesn’t affect Fossils. Then a Compendium ruling on 4/5/2005 overturned the previous one, saying that ATM [Ice] does work on Fossils, and to treat Fossils “as both Trainer Cards and as Pokémon while in play.”

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     • 

       AmbassadorJP

       (2 years ago)

       Huh, thanks for that! There’s also a query there about combining Fossils+Multi TM 01 dated 2003. Maybe some people did notice, but if they did, they kept it secret. Actually, in trying to prove myself wrong, I found this PokeGym thread where someone is looking to abuse TM01. Dated March 2004 (after the 2003 query about Fossils+Multi TM01, after Hidden Legends released, but before the ruling that ATM [Ice] would affect Fossils) this would’ve been the peak of TM01+Fossil stall seeing use in North America, but he doesn’t propose combining it with Fossils, and nobody thinks to suggest it. https://archive.ph/9Qvk5

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   • 

     JP Ambassador

     (2 years ago)

     There is a brief mention of ATM Ice as it relates to Fossils: on Pojo, Johnny Blaze mentioned teching in a 1-1 Milotic ex in his Wailord ex+Fossils deck, and mentions that the tech stops ATM Rock and “[a]s a bonus Milotic-ex also stops the use of ATM Ice that gets rid of all your Trainer cards in play.”

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