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{P}{C} → Seek Inspiration
Discard the top card of your deck, and if that card is a Pokémon that doesn’t have a Rule Box, choose 1 of its attacks and use it as this attack. (Pokémon ex, Pokémon V, etc. have Rule Boxes.)
{P}{P}{C} → Super Psy Bolt : 120
illus. Tetsu Kayama
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It has incredible intellect and intuition. Whatever the situation, it remains calm and collected.
Dark Souls
can you seek inspiration, discard another slowking, and then use seek inspiration to discard the second card of your deck too
Neapolitan
yes you can, there is nothing that says you cant. there are other examples of this being a thing, such as regidrago vstar. however, in this specific scenario it creates a tricky decision in some cases, settle for 120 damage or see if you can get a different/ better attack?
burma
This will go crazy with Black Bolt Haxorus (it OHKO’s basic Pokémon)
Bbb888
Even better, combo this with Amazing Rare Yveltal in Expanded and OHKO EVERYTHING!!! Not just basics
NippyRequiem
This. I play two Amazing Yveltals in my deck and with night stretcher being a thing, I can just fish them out and do it all over again.
someone
It might have to be banned then. Way too OP
Bill
Chuck in academy at night
AIDEN
With all the new sets coming out, more and more Pokemon have attacks that deal more than 200 damage, so if you have lot’s of Pokemon that have those kinds of attacks with this Pokemon in play, you can ONE SHOT pretty much any Pokemon! I like to use Regigigas’s Jewel Breaker attack (https://pkmncards.com/?s=%2Btext%3A%22230+m%22)
Bbb888
For me, I like to use Amazing Rare Yveltal
anon-san
that in expanded sounds diabolical.
Whirlpool
I must be missing something–why is CRI Metagross the optimal partner for this card now? Surely Slowking decks aren’t running Metal energy?
(I’m looking at the recent NAIC 2026 results, where Ross Cawthon’s Slowking deck got 4th place).
JP
You are allowed to discard 0 Metal Energy to do the extra damage: https://compendium.pokegym.net/category/3-attacks/seek-inspiration/
Squirchampion
I was actually recently looking at this as an example of something an AI trained on the EN TCG would struggle to understand, but an AI trained on the JP TCG would have no problem with. Having to hunt down a Compendium ruling that doesn’t explain the rationale is a black box that prevents the AI being able to anticipate other card interactions on its own, even those other interactions are about the same, whereas being directed to a comprehensive rulebook allows it to actually understand the game. I asked an AI in both English and Japanese to explain the interaction between Slowking and Metagross and then similar interactions, unsurprisingly, it got the interactions wrong when using the EN cards and EN rulebook as a reference, but it got the interactions right when looking at JP cards the JP rulebook as reference. To explain the Slowking interaction in depth, it offered the following plain-English explanation, citing C-18 and E-10 as relevant rules;
The setup
Slowking’s attack says: discard the top card of your deck; if it’s a Pokémon (that isn’t a Rule Box Pokémon), pick one of that Pokémon’s attacks and “use it as this attack.” It hits Metagross, so Slowking borrows one of Metagross’s attacks. That borrowed attack has a rider: “If you like, discard 3 Metal Energy from this Pokémon, and add 150 damage.”
The question: Slowking has no Metal Energy. Can it still take the +150?
Answer: Yes.
Two rules explain why
C-18 — “Use as this attack” (this is the borrowing rule)
When you “use an attack as this attack,” you carry out all of that attack’s damage and effects — and you do it even if you don’t have the Energy the attack would normally need. The manual’s own example is Armarouge’s “discard all Fire Energy, do 180”: if the copier has no Fire Energy, “there’s no Energy to discard, so you skip that part and just deal the damage.”
Key point for an English player: when the text says “this Pokémon,” it now means Slowking (the one actually attacking), not Metagross. So “discard 3 Metal Energy from this Pokémon” = discard from Slowking. Slowking has none → you discard nothing → the rest of the line still happens.
E-10 — “If you like” (のぞむなら) (this is the optional-rider rule)
This rule governs riders like “if you like, [pay a cost], add damage.” It says you choose whether to do it, and — this is the catch — if you can’t follow the text after “if you like,” you don’t do the effect that follows the words “in that case.”
That last clause is the whole trick, and it depends on one word:
Metagross’s wording is “discard 3 Metal Energy and add 150 damage” — the two parts are linked as one bundled action (no “in that case”). So C-18’s “discard nothing, still deal damage” wins. You get the +150.
But if Slowking had Metal Energy attached, you’d be forced to discard it the moment you choose the +150 — you can’t keep your Energy and take the bonus.
If instead it had said “discard 3 Metal Energy. In that case, add 150 damage,” then E-10 would block it — no discard means no “in that case” bonus. You’d get nothing.
The bottom line for the player
Borrowing the attack ignores Energy requirements (C-18).
With zero Metal Energy, the “discard 3” just discards nothing and the +150 still lands — because the attack uses “and,” not “in that case” (E-10).
So when reading any “if you like, discard X, add damage” attack, the player should look at C-18 (for borrowed attacks) and E-10 (for the “if you like” rider), and pay close attention to whether the card says “and …” or “in that case …” — that wording decides everything.
Whirlpool
Thanks for the explanations, very helpful!